From $1 to market rate: City of Milpitas considers major rent increase for food pantry

After paying around $1 in rent for the past 11 years, the Milpitas Food Pantry might have to start paying market rate. 

The Milpitas Food Pantry, which has been in existence since the 1950s, has been serving the community by providing food and other items to low-income families and individuals, as well as the homeless community.

The organization is located at 1440 S. Main Street, a building that is owned by the City of Milpitas. 

After the Milpitas Food Pantry moved into the space in 2011, they struck a deal with the city to pay a reduced rent of $1,600 per month. But back in 2014, Mayor Carmen Montano suggested that the City of Milpitas reduce their rent to $1 per month, in an effort to support the organization in serving the community’s most vulnerable members. 

The pantry has been paying that rate for over a decade now. In the last few months, the rate was raised by 20% to $1.21. According to the food pantry, this was due to a standard cost of living increase. 

“Since we haven’t had to worry about spending the money on rent, I could spend it in other ways that made more sense,” said the Milpitas Food Pantry’s Executive Director Karen Kolander in an interview with The Beat.  

At the Milpitas City Council meeting on May 5, the council mentioned the possibility of raising the Milpitas Food Pantry’s rent to the market rate, which representatives of the food pantry say is over $5,000.

The sudden desire to increase the rent for one of Milpitas’ longest running nonprofit organizations is leaving many in the community wondering what happened. 

When The Beat reached out to Mayor Montano to ask why there was a sudden push to increase the rent to market rate, she responded saying that the organization had many different issues. One of her concerns was that the food pantry wasn’t open every day. 

“They supposedly increased from two days to three days a week after negotiations with City staff, but to date, they’re not always there three days,” said Mayor Montano. 

But representatives from the Milpitas Food Pantry say that this isn’t true, and that their hours are Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 9am-12pm, for a total of nine hours per week. In addition, volunteers also work outside those hours to shop and gather food items to keep the pantry fully stocked each week. Along with canned items, they also buy fresh fruit, vegetables, bread, and milk.  

Before the pandemic, the food pantry was open for a total of 19 hours a week. 

“We don’t have enough volunteers to be open any longer than we’re open,” said Stacy Brobst, an administrative assistant for the organization. 

At present, the Milpitas Food Pantry has around seven volunteers. Before the pandemic, they had 25.  

Kolander said that Mayor Montano has also been asking for the food pantry to open on Sundays, during the time that Hope for the Unhoused uses their parking lot to provide services and showers to the unhoused community.

“We don’t want to be open on Sundays. We want to have our Sundays off, which I think is reasonable,” said Kolander. “We’re a private nonprofit. We can decide our own hours. If you look at a lot of different pantries, some are open once or twice a month. Unless you look at a big one, like Sacred Heart, with million-dollar budgets, they’re open longer.” 

Along with saying she wanted additional hours, Mayor Montano also told The Beat that when SNAP food benefits were disrupted by the federal government in 2025, leading to food shortages, she was disappointed that the Milpitas Food Pantry didn’t do anything extra, like giving out food gift cards or doing outreach to the disadvantaged community. 

“I have also been told that they invite friends to help them dump food. They have an overabundance of food and they don’t give it out soon enough, so they have to dump it,” said Montano.  

But workers at the Milpitas Food Pantry say that there is an explanation for this. 

“The food we dump is expired food that people give us,” shared Brobst. “Everything on our storage shelves is dated and brought out to our store before it expires.”  

Meanwhile, Kolander says that the City has held up their business license for the last couple of years. Kolander said she asked the mayor what they had to do to get their business license renewed and that Mayor Montano told her, “I want you to open on Sundays.” 

A city source informed The Beat that the operator of the Milpitas Food Pantry still needs to obtain a temporary use permit, which is why their city business license remains pending. 

It is expected that the Milpitas City Council will vote on whether or not to raise the organization’s rental fee in the next few months. 

In an interview, Councilmember Hon Lien told The Beat that she doesn’t feel that raising the Milpitas Food Pantry’s rent is the fair thing to do. 

“This is a nonprofit. This is where people who cannot afford to buy their groceries can go to get help,” said Councilmember Lien. “WIth all the attacks on food sources, we should be considering how we can help and what we really have to gain from an insignificant amount of money, when the city has enough money in reserve. My heart goes out to those in need. I’m in support of any assistance we can provide to make sure there is food on everyone’s table.”